


Pinned Up

by calico_fiction



Series: little cuts [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Adolescent Sexuality, Angst, Co-Sleeping, Compulsory Heterosexuality, F/M, Fantastic Racism, Heteronormativity, Nationalism, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Queer Themes, References to Norse Religion & Lore, Toxic Masculinity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:14:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22186918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calico_fiction/pseuds/calico_fiction
Summary: Everyone thinks Loki is the studious one, but Thor is the first to hang a poster in their room and it's an illustration from a history book.
Relationships: Brunnhilde | Valkyrie/Thor (Marvel)
Series: little cuts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1121556
Comments: 2
Kudos: 60





	Pinned Up

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be cute and sweet and funny, but then I had some feelings and I figured hey! since they're here why not hurt them?
> 
> Hariasa is a Norse goddess of war. Bragi is technically the god of poetry/music but the only other arts god I could find was Odin himself and that would be weird, so here we are. The LCU (Little Cuts Universe) version of Bragi is the god of the arts in general.
> 
> Written on my phone so please excuse any typos. I'll get to them.

Everyone thinks Loki is the studious one. It's an image he's cultivated, though Thor doesn't know how. Loki does study magic outside of class but that's it, and as for schooling Loki does well out of ease (and the self-fulfilling expectations of their tutors, if you ask Thor) rather than much hard work.

Thor is the one who works. He does his assignments, and he does extra credit, and he takes electives, and he has favorite (and least favorite) subjects, and he looks things up - all sorts of things if they're interesting. Loki studies magic and politics and strategy like he needs them to breathe. Thor just likes to learn.

Thor is almost 700 years old, a pre-adolescent, with growing pains and his first breakout of acne, when he gets on a good history kick. He's not particularly enjoying the here and now. Loki is moody and Sif is being weird and Father has assigned extra court training to Thor. _Just_ Thor, even though he hasn't declared one of them Crown Prince yet so Thor and Loki have equal chances of becoming King. Thor doesn't know why he doesn't just choose Loki, if he thinks Thor so useless that he needs remedial lessons. Not to mention Lærer Hariasa, Thor's tutor for court, is a hard ass and learning from her is a chore.

The distant past is a haven. The Æsir live for so long that most people in the books are still alive, some not even old yet, but even still so much has changed in that time it could be another world entirely. To imagine Heimdall as a child is impossible; the baby born with his gift surely is someone else. Someone not real. Someone who has never and will never know Thor, who's eyes Thor can admire but never have to meet, who's shoes Thor never has to fill.

Thor stays awake late at night, Loki sleeping soundly beside him. Thor's sleep is plagued by shades of Father and Hariasa so he reads to dream instead, and hides the evidence under his side of the mattress. He wakes up tired and grumpy every morning, and the courthand who's job it is to wake him thinks he's lazy, but it's worth it.

Loki is the one who brought tonight's book back to their room. He was interested in the comparative maps of the Nine before and after Asgard united them and brought them peace. They're nice maps but Thor doesn't really understand what's so interesting about a few shifted borders and moved capitals. Maybe if he stares at them long enough something will click and he'll suddenly get it and Father will be proud of him and he can stop taking lessons from Hariasa...

The maps don't make sense even after hours, and now Thor has wasted those hours that he could have spent doing something else or sleeping, and he feels stupid, and he'll dream about how stupid he is if he tries to go to sleep now, so instead he keeps reading.

There's a chapter on Jotunheim, how it was the last of the realms to join the Nine even though it benefited the most from Asgard's science and technology and civilized monarchy, before they started the war. The chapter says that Father sent the Valkyrior to woo the giants. Thor's interest is piqued. He thought the Valkyrior were warriors, not diplomats. He didn't know you could do both.

He and Loki used to play Valkyrior, Thor remembers. They would chase invisible foes with their toy swords and pretend to have flying steeds. They stopped when Thor learned he could never really be a Valkyrie. He gets the urge to play again, for a moment, before it's gone.

The next page is an illustration. A small band of Valkyrior, golden against the oppressive monotone of Jotunheim. They are all women but that and their uniforms are the only thing they seem to have in common. All but two of them face outward from the page, bold and beautiful and full of joy and victory. One is glancing backward, to the hazy blue horizon, leaning on her sword, stately and grim. She is short and dark skinned and visibly strong. Her shield sister right next to her is tall and thin and doe eyed, looking at her.

To Thor, they among their sisters are the most beautiful, the strongest, the most admirable. They are imperfect, posed wrong, not smiling enough, but still they are honored. On impulse, he rips out the page, remembering at the last second to be quiet about it lest he wake Loki and receive a verbal thrashing for defiling a book. He leans over his brother carefully to put the book back on Loki's side table exactly as it was, and then he stares for hours more at the picture.

The sun rises and Thor dreads the day. He's up before Loki today, since he never went to sleep, and shocks his courthand near to death by already being dressed when he arrives. He glares hotly at the courthand's loud gasp, and laughs meanly when he gets a static shock on the door handle as he leaves. Serves him right.

Thor carries the picture of the Valkyrior folded up in his pocket to all his classes that day. He imitates the Black one's stance when he feels ornery, which is often. Hariasa seems to approve, though Loki and Fandral both poke fun.

It's the washmaids that find the picture in Thor's pocket, when they take his clothes after he changes for sparring. Of course they tell absolutely everyone. Thor endures fresh teasing at dinner, all the adults tittering and cooing over how he has learned to like girls. Some joke that they will start hiding their daughters from him, some that they will send them his way. Those jokes are not really jokes, and meant more for Father than for Thor, but everyone pretends like Thor doesn't know that.

But Father teases too. He smiles at Thor and his eyes are sparkling. Someone hands him Thor's picture, as unseen as Loki can be sometimes, and Father gazes down at it fondly before giving it back to Thor with a heavy pat on his shoulder.

So Thor takes the picture to Bragi and has him paint a bigger version. Bragi takes it upon himself to paint the uniforms more form fitting than they really are, but Thor doesn't argue. He likes girls now.

Thor hangs the painting on his side of their bedroom and he stays up late staring at it. He stares at the two who are looking away, at the seriousness of their expressions, at how the short one is thinking about something else entirely and the tall one is only thinking about her, and he likes girls now.


End file.
